Saline Soil Reclamation Index as an efficient tool for assessing restoration progress of saline land

Abstract

Restoration of degraded land is imperative for addressing climate change, deriving additional benefits such as biomass and biofuel for supporting a biobased economy and also for meeting various targets of the Bonn Challenge and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). In this context, the present research aimed to evaluate the performance of mixed biomass plantations on the saline land of western India over a period of 4 years. The impact of plantations on soil quality over the study period (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018) was analysed by the Saline Soil Reclamation Index (SSRI), developed through principal component analysis. The study found a strong correlation between plant growth attributes and soil quality (p < .01). Soil porosity, texture, pH balance, electrical conductivity (EC), available potassium (AK) and available nitrogen (AN) levels are found to be the key indicators regulating the plant growth. The EC, AK and AN levels were seen to change significantly during the initial stage (2014) from 25 dS m −1 , 10 mg kg −1 and 23 mg kg −1 to 1 dS m −1 , 24 mg kg −1 and 39 mg kg −1 , respectively, towards the end of the study period (2018). Among the various test plants, six species (Albizia lebbeck, Casuarina equisetifolia, Cordia dichotoma, Pithecellobium dulce, Pongamia pinnata, Terminalia arjuna) were found with high SSRI (>0.50); while the rest displayed moderate SSRI (0.30-0.49), except for Azadirachta indica, which shown low SSRI (<0.30). The trees having high SSRI are most suitable for the reclamation of saline soil and therefore, SSRI can be used as a tool for assessing the progress of saline land restoration.

Restoring the Unrestored: Strategies for Restoring Global Land during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN-DER)

“…Unfortunately, more than 33% of the global land resources is already degraded due to various direct and indirect drivers of changes [1][2][3][4][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] including pollution due to rapid agriculturalization [5,6,10], urbanization, and industrialization; unsustainable land use practices [15], deforestation [18], salinization [17], desertification, natural and human induced fires, soil erosion, overexploitation of groundwater and other critical natural resources, mining activities, invasive alien plants, climate change, poor land governance and policy measures, behavioral changes, etc. [7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. According to Stocking [22], land degradation is defined as the "temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land, and the diminution of the productive potential, including its major land uses (e.g., rain-fed arable, irrigation, forests), its farming systems (e.g., smallholder subsistence), and its value as an economic resource" [22].…”

Need of transdisciplinary research for accelerating land restoration during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

“…It could also be complemented with the biotechnological, microbiological, and agronomic tools that help adapt the seedlings to grow under stress conditions. These tools should focus on the suitable agronomic packages, such as different soil amendments and practices (Edrisi et al 2021; Fehmi et al 2020) including the mulching, biochar, and woodchip application, utilization of plant growth‐promoting microbes, which retain the moisture content in the soil and assist the seedling growth.…”

Developing sustainable measures to restore fly‐ash contaminated lands: Current challenges and future prospects

“…For instance, developing a soil quality index (SQI) could be one of the pertinent strategies for rigorous assessment. Reports show the development of SQIs for the different types of degraded lands (Edrisi et al, 2019(Edrisi et al, , 2021Yu et al, 2018). For example, Edrisi et al (2021) have developed a key SQI representing the saline soil reclamation index (SSRI), which reflects soil silt, porosity, pH, electrical conductivity, nitrogen and potassium levels from different tested soil parameters for moderately saline land.…”

“…Reports show the development of SQIs for the different types of degraded lands (Edrisi et al, 2019(Edrisi et al, , 2021Yu et al, 2018). For example, Edrisi et al (2021) have developed a key SQI representing the saline soil reclamation index (SSRI), which reflects soil silt, porosity, pH, electrical conductivity, nitrogen and potassium levels from different tested soil parameters for moderately saline land. This SQI development helps managers adopt reclamation strategies suitable for various conditions.…”